SB 214 APPROPRIATIONS FOR MENTAL HEALTH  Number 050 NELSON PAGE, Chair of the Mental Health Trust Authority, informed the committee that the authority is almost a year old. One of the most important aspects of the settlement is the idea that the Trust Authority would work with the Department of Health & Social Services (DHSS) to create a comprehensive plan for providing mental health services for the people of Alaska. The Trust Authority has adopted a vision statement and some guiding principles which have been given to the committee. Mr. Page pointed out that the Vision and Mission Statement contain the following important responsibilities: to continue and plan in perpetuity, to enhance and protect the trust, to provide leadership, to advocate and plan, and to implement and fund. The ultimate goal of the Trust Authority is to improve the life and circumstances of the beneficiaries which therefore, would improve the lives and circumstances of all Alaskans. Number 113 Mr. Page highlighted the following guiding principles of the Mental Health Trust Authority: * the comprehensive plan should be an agent for change with the funding recommendations and planning strategies designed to act as a catalyst to achieve improvement in the system; * the Mental Health Program and its services must be consumer driven and outcome oriented; * the Mental Health Program must have measurable criteria which have some meaning in the lives of the beneficiaries from which evaluations can be made of the services and possible changes (the data should provide a correlation between the plan and the beneficiary information); * the concept of integration and efficiency should be addressed in the planning process. The overall progress of the authority thus far has lead to a better focus of all the beneficiaries, the advocacy groups, and the agencies. Mr. Page said that it had been a pleasure to work with DHSS and Commissioner Perdue. The authority and the department have worked closely on this program. He thanked Commissioner Perdue for her assistance in this matter. Number 184 KAREN PERDUE, Commissioner of the Department of Health & Social Services, echoed Mr. Page's sentiments regarding the two groups work together. The department and the Mental Health Program share the goals of the Trust Authority. Enough time has been spent reviewing the vision and mission in order to correlate the goals, now is the time to move forward with practical work. One of the shared goals, is to obtain basic information by July of 1996 for the Mental Health Trust Authority and the beneficiary boards to utilize in preparation for next year's budget process. Commissioner Perdue stated that everyone involved wants to do program budgeting. In closing, Commissioner Perdue indicated that in the long-term this project would create a big return on the investment. KAY BURROWS, Chair of the Planning & Program Group for the Mental Health Trust Authority, informed the committee that the group has been trying to integrate and create a program approach through the four beneficiary groups and boards. She mentioned that last year the board sent the authority approximately $25 million in priorities. About $5.9 million, of General Fund money as well as Trust Authority money, was agreed upon as recommendations to the Governor. The Mental Health Program Improvements in the Governor's budget amount to $2.15 million, including the Trust Authority's money, and is before the committee. About $3.8 million is left in recommended Program Improvements from the Trust Authority which are not specifically in the Governor's budget. Number 235 Ms. Burrows explained that the Trust Authority had attempted to leverage Trust account money to continue to move people from Harborview and close it. Furthermore, the Trust Authority has also tried to get the State's money into the communities earlier in order to create the necessary wrap around services. The Governor's budget contains an additional $585,000 which were savings from Harborview. Ms. Burrows hoped the savings could be leveraged into the communities. In the supplemental recommendations of the Governor's budget, $100,000 of the $585,000 is to be placed into leverage savings for communities. With regards to the Capital Budget, the authority has a few line items for which the authority suggested it would prioritize Trust Authority money. If there were matching General Funds for transportation vehicles and for adaptive devices for the developmentally disabled community, the authority would prioritize Trust Authority money for those areas. There were no General Funds in the Governor's budget so the Trust Authority decided not to provide the Trust Authority money either. Ms. Burrows mentioned that the authority would be determining where additional money for FY 97 would be prioritized. NELSON PAGE reiterated the fact that the Trust Authority has an interest in working with the committee in order to create and implement an appropriate plan and approach. Mr. Page thanked the committee. Number 270 SENATOR MILLER moved that SB 214 be moved out of committee with individual recommendations and accompanying fiscal notes. Hearing no objection, it was so ordered.